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Google is at its game again! It has made an announcement recently about a new algorithm update.

This one is regarding mobile friendly websites as reported by Zineb Ait Bahajji for Google Webmaster team. Well, this update is just round the corner; 21st April, 2015 to be precise. So all you website owners and SEO professionals, buckle up as Google updates are known to create havoc with site rankings. Who knows better than SEO experts and site owners who have suffered earlier? Rumors also suggest that this one will be much bigger in terms of impact than Panda and Penguin.

What exactly does the update suggest?

Google on its part is always worried about users and rightly so. So this time around, the search engine giant aims to expand its mobile friendliness and aid users. It intends to leverage the vastly expanding numbers of mobile users who engage in browsing on their smart devices. So the catch here is; responsive websites are the way to go. From the technical point of view, mobile friendly websites are set to gain, while those that aren't will find themselves lost in the flurry of search results. From the website owners perspective, things are good this time around as Google has shown the courtesy of informing beforehand, unlike previous updates. So you have time in hand; be prepared and ensure that your search engine ranking does not drop.

How big will be the impact?

Almost every site owner is aware that what Google claims about searches from mobile devices consuming 50 percent of the entire searches across all devices is absolutely true. Google's claims are not false and they have been displaying this text since last November to users for identifying mobile friendly websites on mobile devices.

The announcement made this time provides ample time to ensure that your sites become responsive. Prioritizing the activity of going "The Mobile Way” is the need of this hour. With almost half of the searches coming from mobile devices, the impact of this update is definitely going to be huge.

So from the site owners perspective, start testing your sites across devices. Failure in ensuring this, is sure to attract negative impact; just round the corner as mentioned earlier.

So what do you do?

Google has made available tools to prepare for the new update:

  1.   If testing few pages is your concern, utilize "Mobile-friendly Test” tool
  2.   If entire websites need testing, Webmaster Tools are handy

These tests will provide reports about usability in terms of mobile-friendliness of your site. If issues are found, get them fixed. Overall, you need one important thing; go mobile friendly. To remind you once again, 21st April, 2015 is fast approaching. Mark this date and act accordingly, or get ready for doomsday!